Road Safety: Commission sends a reasoned
opinion to Cyprus, Luxembourg, Poland and the United Kingdom for failing to act
on blind spot mirrors on trucks

Today, the European Commission has been sent
reasoned opinions to Cyprus, Luxembourg, Poland and the United Kingdom for
failing to transpose existing European legislation on the retrofitting of blind
spot mirrors on time. The four Member States have two months to act if they want
to avoid being taken to the European Court of Justice.

Cyprus, Luxembourg, Poland and the United Kingdom have not informed the
Commission on the transposition of the EU Directive on the retrofitting of
mirrors to heavy goods vehicles registered in the
Community[1] into their
national legislation. All Member States were required to do so by 6th August
2008 at the latest.

The Directive obliges Member States to require that trucks above 3.5 t gross
weight which are not already equipped on the passenger side with wide-angle and
close-proximity mirrors be retrofitted with such mirrors in order to reduce the
number of accidents involving in particular cyclists and motorcyclists. The use
of such mirrors will help lorry drivers to notice them when they take a
turn.

A Reasoned Opinion represents the second step of the infringement procedure
under Article 226 of the EC Treaty.

[1] Directive 2007/38/EC
of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 July 2007 on the
retrofitting of mirrors to heavy goods vehicles registered in the Community, OJ
L 184, 14.7.2007, p. 25–28